The GMC is consulting on plans to develop a medical licensing assessment (MLA) that will assure and showcase the quality of medical education and practice across the UK. The thinking behind a single objective assessment for those wishing to practise medicine in the UK stems from current piecemeal arrangements. These not only provide differing levels […]
Richard Smith visited and wrote about the NHS in Dumfries and Galloway in 1980, 1990, and 1999, and this series of blogs describes what he found in 2016. A feature article provides a summary. There are nine community hospitals across Dumfries and Galloway, and I visited the one in Kirkudbright, which is GP led. The […]
At a recent conference organized by POLA (Lithuanian Cancer Patient Coalition), I shared my insights regarding corruption in Lithuanian healthcare system. Due to the complexity of the issue, the main question that I raised during the conference was—how can you fight corruption in the Lithuanian healthcare system and where should you start? There is no doubt […]
Since 2004 NHS emergency departments in the UK have been set “the four hour target.” The time from arrival to discharge and transfer out of the department should be no longer than four hours for all patients attending an emergency department. Initially 98%, it was lowered to 95% in 2010, and on 9 January 2017 the health […]
There’s a growing consensus that publishing science through journals is a broken system. But who has the power to change it? Those who fund research have most power, which includes pharmaceutical companies. So far they have not exercised this power, but should they? A meeting in London last week organised by Oxford PharmaGenesis addressed this […]
A year ago, the idea that a property magnate come reality TV star could become the most powerful person on earth was unthinkable. A week ago, the idea that he may have any involvement in the NHS seemed ludicrous. But then Theresa May was invited to become the first foreign dignitary to have an audience […]
In the past few years, our focus at The King’s Fund—on integration, new models of care, and increasingly, place-based population health systems—has been concerned with the physical and mental health of adults, often older people. But we are increasingly aware of some of the trends, issues, and conundrums when it comes to the health of […]
Since Ronald Reagan, banning and un-banning the use of US aid to support agencies that discuss or refer patients for abortion services has been a partisan tradition. Republican presidents make a point of ordering the ban in their first days in office, and Democrats make a point of rescinding it. Donald Trump, in this as […]
“This group just made it more difficult for women to get access to healthcare worldwide. You tell me what’s wrong with this picture,” laments the US Senator for California, Kamala Harris, in her caption of a recent photo of President Donald Trump and his team. The photograph in question shows the new world leader signing an executive […]
On Tuesday 24 January, Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for Health gave evidence to the Health Committee of the House of Commons about how he plans to handle Brexit for health and social care. This was the first hearing in the Health Committee’s inquiry into Brexit and health and social care. You might think that […]